1796 in Australia

Decades:	; 1780s; 1790s; 1800s; 1810s;
See also:	Other events of 1796; ; Timeline of Australian history;

The following lists events that happened during 1796 in Australia.

Leaders

16 January – Australia's first theatre opens in Sydney. Edward Young's The Revenge and the comedy The Hotel are the first works performed.
23 January – The distillation of spirits is prohibited.
5 February – Soldiers from the New South Wales Corps wreck a house belonging to millwright John Baughan.
10 February – Magistrate William Balmain challenges Macarthur over the house-wrecking incident.
29 February – Macarthur resigns as Inspector of the Public Works and is replaced by Richard Atkins.
June – George Bass makes an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Blue Mountains. Coal is discovered near Port Stephens.
14 September – Governor Hunter complains to the Colonial Secretary of Macarthur's behaviour.
15 September – Macarthur complains to Colonial Secretary of Hunter's governing.
9 November – As Sydney grows, Hunter disbands the convict night watch. He divides Sydney into four districts responsible for their own watchmen and orders houses to be numbered.

20 March – Edward Gibbon Wakefield
date unknown
- Henry Vincent, first superintendent of Rottnest Island Aboriginal Prison (d. 1869)

Barker, Anthony (1996). What Happened When. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86373-986-3.
National Library of Australia. "The World Upside Down: Australia 1788 – 1830". Archived from the original on 20 March 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2007.